It was a quiet night at Site-34 (obviously), enough to have a small gathering in the break room. There was popcorn, soft drinks, pan-pizzas (minipizzas on round bread), and Dr. Von Braun had brought a lot of videotapes already along with SCP-ES-061, who turned a film seen a thousand times into a totally new experience, literally.
Joining him were Agents Kane and Agent Mujica and Doctors Bitran, Domeyko, VanDerGauss, Castillo, and Cygnus. The last two were somewhat apart from the rest, talking in low voices.
What they had to say was important: a Russian expedition in Antarctica was drilling through 2000 meters of ice in order to reach a lake buried in the bowels of the polar ice cap. The lake was a large body of water that had remained isolated of all outside influence for at least 10 million years, maybe more. There was a week to complete the drilling and access the lake, where they would take samples, perhaps hoping to find unique microorganisms, among other things.
The fact that it sounded like the beginning of a horror movie had not gone unnoticed by the Foundation, who would send two agents under false identities: one a scientist to assess any possible risk and the other a field agent with combat experience to take the necessary measures if there was danger, including the isolation of the equipment, data, and samples… or even its destruction, if need be.
"The kind of extreme measures that the Foundation likes… do they know something that we don't?"
"No, or so they say," Castillo replied. "Anyway, the Foundation, and, with it, humanity, has not survived by being neglectful. Nothing may happen, but anyway… they've already chosen which agent to send; it will be Mujica, (and considering how carefree he's acting, there's no doubt he has not been informed yet,) but regarding the scientist, who will have to spend at least a month isolated among the ice, they ordered me to evaluate who would be best to send."
"Maybe Von Braun?"
"I do not know if he would be the right man for the job, and we do not know how he will react. Remember when he faked his son's death just to extend his vacation for another fifteen days?"
"Yeah, that was awful, even taking into account that he's single with no kids… and VanDerGauss?"
"I am liking him a lot for this. Besides, with any luck, he might fall into a crack in the ice and be frozen there for the next hundred years."
"Hey guys! What are you doing chatting among yourselves over there?" Von Braun interrupted. "Choose: Predator or the first Indiana Jones movie?"
"Do you not have Avatar? I'd like to see a version of that movie that does not have a story so fürchterlich1 cliché."
"No, my dear Phill Kleinac. More recent films do not come on VHS; it's a technology as dead as the three and a half floppy disks."
In the end they chose Commando (1985), and while Castillo and Cygnus were still arguing in low voices, the group sitting in front of the TV was dying of laughter because the protagonist was a bearded Harrison Ford instead of Schwarzenegger. Later, they laughed a lot less when the alternative version of the movie went from being a parody of an eighties action movie to a serious criminal drama about a traumatized Vietnam veteran forced to do horrible things to defend his daughter. Following that, they engaged in a ridiculous discussion about whether the gun the protagonist was being threatened with was a Desert Eagle or not.
"It's a Desert Eagle, no doubt. I have one just like it," Castillo said, he and Cygnus since having decided to leave their decision for later and join the rest of the group.
"Seriously? Why?" Von Braun asked. "It's not a very useful pistol; it's too big, has little balance, and has a low ammo capacity."
"I find it useful. It saved my life once."
"That may be so, but anyway, no police force or any other type of official generally uses them… for me, pistols that big are like phallic symbols, a kind of overcompensation for personal shortcomings."
Von Braun returned his concentration to the screen, ignoring how Castillo's gaze hardened and nailed mercilessly into his back.
The next day, Castillo sent the following memo:
To O5-7
Dear Sir:
I have concluded that the right person to be sent to the Russian Antarctic base, Ivan Kolessov, as an evaluator of any possible Euclid or Keter level SCPs, is Dr. Von Braun. Not only is he a scientist with experience in multiple disciplines and the containment of several SCPs, but he is also a very sympathetic individual, which will make more bearable, for him and for the Russian expedition, the months of isolation.
Sincerely.
Dr. Castillo
Shortly after, he bought an FN 5.7.
